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Montreal's LASSO Festival Grows Rapidly Alongside Canada's Country Music Scene
The large-scale country music festival, co-produced by Evenko and Live Nation, welcomed over 43,000 fans this year on August 15 and 16. The lineup featured headliners Thomas Rhett and Mumford & Sons, along with established country acts like Carly Pearce, The Band Perry, Old Dominion and Jon Pardi and rising Canadian stars like Cameron Whitcomb, Morgan Griffiths and Noah Brigden.
For Nick Farkas, Evenko's senior vice-president of booking, concerts and events, it's a rapidly growing success story that has grown faster than other major festivals like Osheaga (which he co-founded).
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"Five years in, where this festival is at, for me, is just fantastic," Farkas says. "We were not this far along on any festival we've ever done. It's a ton of fun to work on it."
The festival's growth fits into a bigger trend of country music throughout the music landscape. Recently, the genre has surpassed hip-hop and pop as the most successful genre at the top of the charts.
This week, the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 features a rare sweep of country songs comprising the top four slots, with Ella Langley's "Choosin' Texas" at No. 1, Stella Lefty's "Boston" at No. 2, Cameron Whitcomb's "Kingdom of Fear" at No. 3 and Morgan Wallen's "Been By Now" at No. 4.
That potential was first bubbling when LASSO began five years ago, but it was unforeseen in Canada just five years before that.
Country music had a following among French Canadian audiences, but it had barely scratched the surface in terms of big ticket shows in Montreal. Arena headlines were far and few between, outside of select mainstream crossover acts like Shania Twain, Garth Brooks and The Chicks, until one major show swept the Bell Centre, proving that country music was a hidden gem for opportunity in the city, and a "massive market that was untapped."
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"We had one arena country show every few years," Farkas explains. "[The scene] was non-existent, and we had no country radio, so it was not on anyone's radar. We started seeing a shift when we booked a show with Luke Bryan in 2016 and it sold out the Bell Centre in like a day. We were like, "Holy crap, that's, there's something going on here with some of this newer country stuff."
Evenko later rolled the dice with a large-scale festival, combining the rising global appeal of country music with the Quebec and Canadian scene, giving local country musicians a global stage and spotlight that didn't previously exist in the metropolis.
Five editions in, the festival has booked storied and breakthrough names like Chris Stapleton, Bailey Zimmerman and Megan Moroney. This year, Lasso saw a record 30% turnout from outside Quebec, a "huge win" per Farkas that has cemented the festival's nationwide and international reputation.
Above all, it's a chance for Canada's rising voices to get an international spotlight that is otherwise rare, given the general lack of club-sized country concerts in Montreal before Lasso (the festival also hosts several sideshows as a promoter).
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This year, Canadian breakthrough Cameron Whitcomb was one of the biggest names on the bill, playing a main stage set at 6 pm that was defined by his contagious optimism, a few backflips and his handful of charting country, rock and folk hits like the aforementioned "Kingdom of Fear," "Hundred Mile High" and "Medusa."
Lasso 2026 also put a spotlight on Quebec's francophone country scene with acts like Gab Bouchard, whose throwback country-rock sound drew a sizeable crowd on the secondary stage, and Classe Moyenne, who rocked the main stage with their cross-genre bilingual hybrid of pop, folk, rock and country.
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Rising artists Theo Day and Hayden Ryann graced the SiriusXM stage, playing for some of their busiest crowds as up to 1,000 festivalgoers gathered around the stage, while sharing the bill with international superstars.
Near the line dancing tent, fans were there to have a good time and were open to taking a chance on a new Canadian artist. Ryann capped her set with a cover of Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child O' Mine" with a ripping fiddle solo that got the whole audience dancing and singing along.
"This is the biggest show that me and my band have ever played," says Ryann, who grew up between Toronto and Hudson, Quebec. "All of us have just been smiling this whole day because we can't believe this is real."
Day, a rootsy folk singer who grew up between Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and South Carolina, had a similar experience on the first day of the festival. It was also his best-attended set. "I've never had a situation where you just see an ocean of people," he said. He was still at LASSO the next day, mingling with country singers and shaking hands with members of the music industry.
LASSO takes place at Parc Jean-Drapeau, the same venue two weeks after Osheaga. It's part of a strategy by Evenko to maximize its festival infrastructure, which Farkas compares to building a small town each summer. The cross-genre Osheaga is followed by electronic festival îLESONIQ, then Lasso, and this year will also host the lone Canadian stop on the beloved punk festival Warped Tour for Montreal's first time in over 12 years this weekend (August 21 and 22).
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For the second consecutive year, LASSO and Osheaga shared a common act. In 2025, Shaboozey played both festivals as his smash success "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" dominated for a second straight summer. This year, Max McNown impressed a wider non-country audience at Osheaga before circling back to Lasso two weekends later, where his Americana sound fits in comfortably. It shows the crossover success of country music.
Just like Osheaga, LASSO aims to push the jar and keep its sonic scope broad, with acts like Whitcomb leaning towards pop, punk and rock, and Mumford & Sons, who headlined Osheaga in 2013, fitting in the indie-folk genre. Their headline set proved to be a major highlight of the weekend, captivating a highly-engaged crowd of fans who harmonized with them during their heartfelt slower songs and fast-paced anthems. Marcus Mumford recognized that headlining a country festival might seem strange to some people, but felt right to them. "We've been thinking of ourselves as a country band for quite awhile now," they said.
Mumford & Sons at LASSO Festival in Montreal on August 16, 2026. Lucas Domínguez / Billboard Canada
It's one of the risks that LASSO continues to take as a newer festival testing the waters. But Farkas trusts the open-mindedness of Montreal crowds.
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As LASSO continues to grow, Farkas hopes its success will extend into another five years. He hopes by then there will be a Canadian act, or even French Canadian act, who has grown big enough to headline.
Farkas admits that the festival didn't book the genre's most gargantuan headliners like Morgan Wallen, but LASSO has already shown its staying power and its potential, like Osheaga, to grow into one of country's biggest festivals.
"We've proven we can be a sustainable, successful festival [by] programming it with smart decisions top to bottom," he says. "That's super encouraging and I'm hoping that we can continue to grow the fan base across Canada and into the States."
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